We’re very excited to tell you about the 2016 Old Florida Outdoor Festival sponsored by the City of Apopka! Keep reading for your chance to win a family four pack of some really sweet tickets! Last year, we posted some information and even got a chance to check it out for ourselves. You can read all about our 2015 Old Florida Outdoor Festival experience on our site as well. In case you missed it, or just don’t have time to go back and read our previous post, the Old Florida Outdoor Festival was ranked as one of the very best family entertainment values of 2015!

So what’s the big deal? Think about your favorite country music concert, bounce houses, a BBQ competition, a chili cook-off, tons of community vendors, shooting competitions, livestock show, and fishing demos. Now put them all in the same place in one of the most beautiful venues we have ever seen, and you have the Old Florida Outdoor Festival! Ok, so that may be a bit of information overload so I’ll break it down:

For three days this February 12th through the 14th, the Apopka Amphitheater transforms into an amazing venue with some top-notch country music headliners. This year Parmalee with be performing Friday evening, with Chris Young following up Saturday night. Drake White will be performing Sunday night. What’s incredible is that you have a choice of purchasing actual assigned seats, or just chilling out in the massive general admission area. Be sure to bring a chair or blanket if you go the general admission route. Rest assured the acoustics are incredible, and no matter what your vantage point, you’ll have a great view!

So what can you expect when you actually get to the Old Florida Outdoor Festival? Well for starters, you’ll see tons of parking all around the amphitheater. (You’ll want to snap a photo of your car, and use the GPS data tagged in the photo to find your way back at the end of the night.) There is so much to do and see once you get inside, you can wander around for quite a while before you have had a chance to see everything. Continue reading →

What do you get when you mix a concert with blue crabs, carnival rides, fireworks, community vendors and craft booths? The Palatka Blue Crab Festival of course! We packed up for a day of fun and adventure over the Memorial Day Weekend to checkout this historical community event located right on the St. Johns River. This is a three-day event that hosts all sorts of things including live music, fireworks and more.

We loaded up the family along with a small cooler of drinks. Before we left town, we stopped at Subway to we could “pre-eat” at the festival. It’s one of my general rules for food festivals to keep it frugal. It turns out those there is a Subway literally right in the middle of the festival, so next year we won’t need to pack ahead of time. We drove around downtown Palatka for quite a bit looking for parking, but eventually found a free spot. There where businesses and organizations that charged anywhere from $5 to $10 for private parking, but there are ample spots, just depending on how far you want to walk. We scarfed down our lunch in the car as we arrived around 1pm and slathered on the sun screen! In retrospect next year, we may either eat the local Subway or if we do a picnic lunch head over to Ravine Gardens State Park to enjoy some lunch at a picnic table before we go to the Palatka Blue Crab Festival. We would probably feel less rushed and would have had a great time at the gardens.

Being a new visitor to the Palatka Blue Crab Festival, we didn’t really know what to do or where to start, so we just sorta started walking torwards the riverfront. There was an entire streets cape filled with crag vendors and local artisans selling everything from marshmallow shooters to really cool outdoor furniture. There was a great mix of local and out-of-town talent peddling their wares. At about every street corner, there were food vendors selling all sorts of yummy smelling treats, drinks and more. The prices were reasonable for a street fair, and bottled drinks were being sold for around $2 all across the Palatka Blue Crab Festival. Not too bad, as many of these booths were fundraisers from everything from the Boys Scouts to local civic organizations.

Often times festivals are all about food! The chicken wing festival offered delicious chicken wings, The Oyster Festival has a great selection of oysters, and the Festival of Bacon had so many great offerings. So I was expecting the Manatee Festival to have at least a few selections of delectable manatee. Nope, not that kind of festival.. All kidding aside, the Orange City Blue Springs Manatee Festival was one of the greatest, most family friendly events that we have attended in quite awhile. Of course it wasn’t about eating the manatees, but instead saving these gentle creatures and bringing awareness to their declining numbers.

It’s still up for debate on how we discovered this great annual event, but the entire family was looking forward to going for over a month. We got a bit of a late start as the Mrs. worked the night before and got a few hours of sleep before we went on our adventure. We didn’t really know what to expect as we had never been to Valentine Park, which is where the annual Manatee Festival is held. Located a mile or two off of I-4, you can get to the festival easily from anywhere in Central Florida. We used our phones for navigation, but we did notice a few Manatee Festival signs when we go to the right exit.

Because we arrived a bit after noon, we parked all the way on the western side of Valentine Park. It wasn’t really a big deal, but just meant we had some walking to do. We didn’t mind as we loaded our little guy into his stroller and grabbed all the gear associated with taking a toddler out for a day on the town. After a brief walk we got to the main gate of the Manatee Festival and had to chuckle a bit at the prices. Adult admission was $8 per person, and children 4-10 were only $2. Under 4 were FREE. Since they offered FREE parking the overall cost of the Manatee Festival was reasonable. The reason we chuckled is because dogs were welcome, but they had their own admission charge of $10. Continue reading →

The longest running event in Orlando, the Fall Fiesta in the Park at Lake Eola will prove to be the greatest one yet! You won’t want to miss the tons of craft vendors that will be all around scenic Lake Eola! With over 300 booths, you will find something crafty you just can’t live without. Don’t worry, if you’re hung there will also be lots of food trucks for you to choose from too. In the past previous Fiestas have been pet friendly so long as your pets are well behaved and non-aggressive.

At the Fall Fiesta in the park, you can expect to find all sorts of family friendly activities including a completely free kids zone! What could be better than a relaxing day strolling around Lake Eola? Parking for this event has been traditionally difficult, as the park itself has limited (if any) parking to choose from. Instead park at a near by city parking garage. Sure it will cost a couple of bucks, but it really is your best option. They have also ran shuttle busses to the event if you don’t want to walk there. There are multiple parking garages to choose from, but you may want to checkout the information from the city of Orlando HERE. Continue reading →

For the past seventeen years, the Port Orange Family days have been proving family friendly and FREE entertainment to the Volusia County area! This year will mark the 18th annual event and it promises to be more fun than ever! Maintained and organized by a local community trust, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better community fair and festival that offers more to the local community that the Port Orange Family Days!

With humble beginning in 1996, this annual event has grown to host over 50,000 visitors each year! What’s even more amazing is that Port Orange Family Days offers free admission, and zero parking fees! Each year the local community trust works with local businesses, organizations, and community members to help sponsor the event. You can spend hours walking around the lake at the Port Orange City Center complex just checking out the vendors and local community booths. In the past we have received free samples, coupons, and information about local businesses and groups that we would have never otherwise known about. Continue reading →